WooCommerce businesses that can use the Booking & Appointment plugin with Zoom integration

Due to the popular demand from our customers, we recently integrated our Booking & Appointment plugin for WooCommerce with Zoom. Who knew a simple video conferencing application would change the shape of e-commerce businesses all around the world. Launched in January 2013, Zoom took the world by the storm in the year 2020 when everybody was confined to their homes. As we progress into 2021, this platform continues to bring new features to the table and e-commerce businesses, especially booking & appointment businesses, are at the forefront of utilizing its benefits.

But why Zoom? 

Firstly, this integration was suggested by Dhruvin Shah, our Head of Products at Tyche Softwares, who saw an increase in the number of customer requests for a way to schedule online classes on their booking sites. Secondly, to further understand why exactly we integrated our Booking & Appointment Plugin for WooCommerce with Zoom, we will have to first understand Zoom’s impact & benefits for e-commerce booking businesses.  

Here’s a look at why Zoom became such a big phenomenon 

2020 became the year when everything shifted online. And Zoom was just one of the reasons that made this shift easier for businesses. In 2020 alone, 641 Zoom business customers were worth $100,000 or more. Regardless of the size of your business, small and large businesses both found a way to use this platform and catch up on the sales they might have missed.  That’s why Zoom has 1,644 business customers. 

To top it off, customers in general, also adapted to this online mode- whether for shopping, attending lectures, meetings, or even workshops! Using Zoom became so vital that according to Okta’s Business at Work Report 2021, it was the preferred Video App for two consecutive years from 2020 to 2021! In February 2020, it had 12.92 million monthly active users. A month later, the daily downloads for the application increased to nearly 2.5 million. 

With an increase of over 300 million daily meeting participants in April 2020, Zoom mobile users weren’t behind either. There were 94 million iOS downloads in Q2 of the year 2020. These stats just showcase how customers, businesses and everyone alike has been using Zoom for the past couple of years. And because this use will continue in the future, it’s time to understand exactly how a booking system business like yours can use Zoom to its benefit. 

Benefits of using Zoom with WooCommerce booking businesses

The very first thing we need to keep in mind is that a video conferencing platform can be of particular use to a booking business by providing an online alternative to the real situation. For example, let’s say that you offer guitar lessons, and to take them, learners can simply go to your WooCommerce site and book the specific lecture they want. Maybe your customer wants these lessons from the comfort of their home. A booking that automatically sends your customer the meeting link for this lecture, once the payment is done, will come quite handy in such a scenario. 

So in short, you’ve landed a sale regardless of any situation. What’s more? The process has been streamlined and automated by figuring out a few things in your Booking & Appointment plugin for WooCommerce.

Now, you must be wondering how does Zoom differ from other similar video conferencing platforms? What kind of advantages does it offer for my services that can be booked online? Read below to find out more:

Connecting a large group of people

Well, of course, a video conferencing platform helps you connect with several people at once! But think of it along the lines of your business. Maybe your WooCommerce booking business offers tutoring services individually and in group sessions. With Zoom, you will be easily able to monitor and help many people in one go. Live interaction with peers as well as the teacher will enhance the experience. 

Zoom Rooms for WooCommerce booking businesses

Let’s say that your booking business requires you to conduct activities for people in a smaller group. You will be able to do this easily with the Zoom Rooms feature. With it, you can choose the specific people you wish to divide into groups. You can even share messages and keep the meetings timed for a specific duration. For example, if you are teaching a course that requires student participation for an activity in groups, you can easily divide your students where they can interact with each other!

If you wish, you can even start a whiteboard session in Zoom Rooms. This is especially useful for people who plan to use the whiteboard to teach something!

Other benefits

Zoom comes with a lot of features and you can easily explore them all. Here’s a look at some of our favorite features that you definitely need to know:

• Set a virtual background during your meeting. This helps you keep your environment anonymous.
• Share accompanying presentations to go along with your lectures, tutorials, workshops, tours, and what not.
• Want to share your screen? Yep, you can do this too!
• Want to make sure your meeting is secure? Create passwords for your meeting so that it’s only shared between you and your customer.
• Wish to record your session for future use? Use the Video Recording option.
• Looking for a way to allot hosts for a particular meeting? You can do this too!
• You can even control who enters your session and who doesn’t. With Zoom’s Waiting Room feature, hosts can choose to admit participants- whether one by one or all together- the choice is yours.
• You have the flexibility to operate it across different platforms such as mobile, browser, and other devices.

WooCommerce business niches that can use the Booking & Appointment plugin with Zoom integration

Different WooCommerce bookings businesses have different requirements. Some would simply like a system that will help them enable prior bookings on their website. While other businesses may need different features, such as:

• Setting special prices for specific bookings
• Creating recurring bookings
• Setting date and time
• Sending automatic reminder emails for bookings
• Scheduling bookings based on day or night basis
• Offering more than one bookings in one go

The list goes on and on. For your specific booking needs, we have come up with one solution that will help you handle all of this and more- our Booking & Appointment Plugin for WooCommerce. Currently, it is trusted by over 5000 businesses. With a 30-day money-back guarantee, a full year of customer support, and compatibility with several other plugins, this plugin will take care of all the heavy work for you!

The latest Zoom integration feature of this plugin will help your WooCommerce booking business reach new heights. Let’s get into what kind of businesses can use the Zoom platform to increase their sales, get more customers, and utilize technology during uncertain times.

1. Online cooking or baking classes

According to a 2021 survey by consumer market research firm Hunter, 71% of people in the U.S will continue to cook more even after the pandemic. And 41% of Americans will bake more compared to the year 2020. Cooking is just one of those activities that can be easily performed at home. It’s just a matter of getting those right ingredients, and instructions to create that perfect dish! 

Since we’ve already found how the current eating trends have changed depending on the situation, more consumers are eager to gain cooking skills. Whether you’re a local chef or an independent baker- you can easily provide bookable classes on your WooCommerce website. Your online cooking lectures or even workshops could be theme-based, meal-based, or even cuisine-based. Maybe you’re an expert at vegan food, or maybe you would like to introduce your customers to Italian cooking- all of it will be possible by taking your cooking classes on Zoom. Simply get the Booking & Appointment plugin for WooCommerce, configure your settings, and voila! At the checkout, your customer will receive the Zoom link for their class.

2. Education courses

Did you know that as of April 2020, the Zoom platform has been used by 90,000 schools in 20 countries. That’s right, if your business offers educational courses, it can immediately take up Zoom as a technological aid. Let’s say that your business provides a tutoring service. Or maybe you’re a freelancer who gives lectures & online courses as and when needed. You can simply use the Zoom platform for your online lectures. 

Whether it’s taking theology lessons, teaching Biology to kids, or even taking lessons on languages! Previously mentioned features such as screen sharing, video recording, letting particular students in at a time and so much more can be of additional use to you. 

3. Intimate Concerts or Virtual Meet & Greet opportunities

Did you know that 45% of live video audiences are willing to pay for live or exclusive videos from their favorite speaker or performer? That’s right- currently, several bands and artists alike are also looking for ways to connect with their audience online. Holding small-scale online intimate concerts or even meet & greet sessions on Zoom with artists can be a way to go. 

Just recently actor and singer Park Jinyoung had a brief online Zoom meet and greet with 100 of his fans. And in October 2020, musicians BTS garnered more than 100 million fans for their virtual concert. Get inspired by them and start scheduling your online concerts or events with Zoom! Whether you’re a business that offers ticketing services or whether you’re an artist, you can use the Booking & Appointment plugin on your website and make the process easier. 

4. Music lessons

Did you know that Zoom seems to be the platform of choice for most choruses who wish to perform virtual rehearsals? Since 2020, several music teachers and music program instructors started taking music lessons online for their at-home students. Many of them are even enjoying shifting things online. If you’re a business that offers music lessons, or simply an independent musician looking for a way to share your skills, you can create a WooCommerce website & transform it into a booking system with our plugin. Your  WooCommerce booking businesses can then easily use Zoom to offer lectures!

5. Doctor’s appointments or Health coaching

Yes, even the health sector has majorly shifted online. And with it, everybody’s looking for a way to optimize their site to increase their appointment bookings. Whether you wish to take pregnancy exercise classes, opt for health coaching, or simply want an online doctor’s appointment booking. All of these are now easily possible via Zoom. Ensure your services have the required bookings -such as its time slots and days on your website. Use our Booking & Appointment for WooCommerce plugin to handle everything related to your bookings. Use the Zoom integration to have these appointments online with your clients! 

6. Appointments with Stylists

With no time to go to a mall, online shopping has become not just a fad but also a necessity. With this shift to online, retail WooCommerce shop owners can take the advantage of providing one-to-one video sessions with your stylists. It can also become a way to promote your clothing items. Plus who doesn’t want some expert fashion advice while shopping? So start by providing a stylist appointment online. You can be one of the several fashion WooCommerce booking businesses that can use Zoom to create bookable sessions with the stylists!

7. Sessions on therapy, life coaching, or mental health counseling 

Many of our clients who have been using our Booking & Appointment plugin offer services that help individuals become better at themselves. Whether it’s offering motivational speaking lectures, life coaching lectures, or even therapy sessions. Affordable online therapy sessions have become quite necessary and customers are taking full advantage of these virtual sessions. Popularly known as Zoom Counselling, these sessions are either conducted with individuals or groups. And they offer flexibility to patients to schedule their appointments, provide privacy, and even removes the stigma around the fear of getting judged for taking up these sessions.  

8. Art workshops

Self-taught artists, art teachers, and everyone in between can also start their business with our Booking & Appointment plugin. Whether you are offering a limited-time summer art workshop online or an introduction to learning tattoo designing. Do this by letting your customers choose their lecture time and date. 

For example, let’s say that for your short-term summer art workshops, you tend to receive more bookings for the lectures in summer. With our Booking & Appointment plugin for WooCommerce, you can simply increase the number of booking slots for those few months. You can even charge more during that time! Quite useful right? Once your students book for these lectures they’ll receive the Zoom meeting link and your work will be done!  

9. Acting lessons

For people who offer acting lessons or even acting mentorship, you can take up virtual sessions on Zoom. As said by Williams from Acting in the Digital Age 

“None of the solutions I’ve tried prior to Zoom were actually strong enough to give me the level of detail I needed to get a lesson through. To teach acting, you have to be able to feel your students’ energy. The video has to be so clear you can see them blush.”

Take inspiration from them and let your customers chose their sessions on your WooCommerce site. 

10. Virtual tours

Want a way to market your rented apartments? Use your WooCommerce site to take appointments for virtual tours. Whether you run an apartment renting business, a museum, or even a hotel business! Your WooCommerce booking businesses can use Zoom to offer guided virtual tours of your museum, apartments, rooms, and so much more.

Conclusion

These are just some of the WooCommerce businesses that can easily use the Zoom platform. With so many of them already covered in this post, we can only hope that many more continue to benefit from our Booking & Appointment plugin’s integration with Zoom. If you are still unsure about our plugin, we’d recommend you to a look at the demo setup of the Booking & Appointment plugin. Discover and experience the plugin for yourself!

If we’ve accidentally missed out on your business taking advantage of this feature, let us know in the comments below!